TRUE STORIES

LX2-HA-WH

I was making my monthly six-hour nighttime drive from Washington, D.C. to western New York for my service in the Army Reserves and had my trusty LX2 LumaMax® flashlight with me. As a soldier, I've learned the benefits of being prepared with the right gear at the right time. Over the years of taking long trips in old cars, I have acquired pretty much everything I need to react to anything that happens to me, my vehicle, or someone else's vehicle on the road. My old cars have broken down more than a few times, and the kindness of strangers has gotten me out of some tight spots, so I try to help those I find in need.

On this dark and rainy night, I was driving through the hills of northwest Pennsylvania when, at about 0230 in the morning, I saw a 30-year-old mother in the middle of the highway flagging me down. At this point, I hadn’t seen any other cars for a while, so I knew I had to stop. When I did, she frantically told me that her young mentally challenged son had run into the woods after their dog and she could not leave her other kids, both young and strapped into car seats, to go after him. And even if she could, she had no flashlight.

I pulled my LX2 from my pocket and went to work. Thanks to how bright it was, I was able to quickly search the woods and locate the reflection in the dog’s eyes. Then I found her son sitting on a rock and petting the dog. I was able to get her son and dog back to the highway safely, and she repeatedly thanked me and kept saying how she couldn’t even have gone into the woods because she didn’t have a flashlight. I gave her my LX2 flashlight and a fresh set of batteries so hopefully she will never be stuck without a flashlight again.

Your lights have saved me countless times, both in Iraq and back home. They are well built, durable, and can take a heck of a beating. I will always keep a SureFire within arm’s reach and in every one of my vehicles. I hope that lady I gave my LX2 to will as well.

Daniel F.
Frederick, MD

See the LX2 LumaMax® flashlight:

See All Stories About The:

During my tour in Afghanistan (2009-2010), I had the Surefire LX2 LumaMax® with me everywhere. It was always in a pocket on my lower left leg for when I ever needed it. During that tour it took all the beatings of combat and missions. Never once did it let me down.

On one day, in January of 2010, I was returning from a mission and heading back to base when my vehicle hit a massive IED. I was severely injured in the blast. Along with numerous internal injuries, I’d also lost my left leg. My weapon, which was next to my leg, was nothing but a twisted, mangled J-shaped piece of metal from the blast.

After almost a year in Walter Reed, I was able to track down my gear. While digging through my personal belongings from that fateful day, I found my trusty SureFire from the blast. It had chunks of metal taken out of the body, and the glass was totally destroyed, but just for the heck of it I pushed the button—the light came on! After taking a direct blast from a powerful IED, my SureFire LX2 still worked! I still have it to this day, in a place of remembrance of that fateful day.

Shane B.
McLean, VA

See the LX2 LumaMax® flashlight:

See All Stories About The:

On a late night in July, I was walking my dog at midnight in Telluride, Colorado. Our house is at 10,500 feet, on the side of the ski mountain, so it is pretty secluded. I had my SureFire LX2 LumaMax® on me, as I always do when I go for a walk.

As we were walking up the mountain, my dog, who is 12 years old, starts running up the trail at a pretty brisk pace. I thought nothing of it, but then I turned on the 200 lumens of my flashlight and saw three porcupines waddling up the ski run, right where my dog was headed. I called for him, and he came back to me, but just as he arrived, I pointed my flashlight up to the right to reveal a giant grizzly bear no more than 20 yards away, walking straight toward us. I grabbed my dog by the skin on the back of his neck, and we very slowly and quietly turned around and headed back down the mountain to the house.

Moral of the story: I was super stoked that I had my SureFire on me, because if I didn't, my dog and I would’ve walked right into that bear.

Cooper M.
Boulder, CO

See the LX2 flashlight:

See All Stories About The:

I work as a paramedic in a large city where the crime rate is fairly high. I never run a call without my Surefire LX2 LumaMax® on me. At approx 2:00 a.m. one Saturday morning, my squad was dispatched to a call for a psych patient who was off of his medication and becoming aggressive toward his wife. I arrived to find the 44-year-old schizophrenic patient who was hearing voices and yelling at his wife and the voices.

I called for the police to respond, for our safety, and was told they were so busy that it would take a while. My partner and I attempted to calm the patient down, but that would only last so long before the voices took over. As time passed, the patient became more and more restless. I kept checking for the cops; 45 minutes had passed, and they still hadn't arrived. All of a sudden, the patient stated, “I know how I’m going to handle this,” and I got the feeling that something wasn’t right. He got up and quickly moved to the kitchen, which was completely dark due to the lack of lighting. I got up and followed him and could see that he had something in his hand.

I shined my LX2 on the counter and saw that he had a large kitchen knife in his hand and was making a motion as though he were going to stab himself. I yelled at him, he looked up at me, and lunged at me with the knife from about five feet away. I raised my LX2 and fired the light directly into his eyes, catching him off guard and starling him. To my amazement, he dropped the knife and backed himself into the fridge. His wife came running in to help calm him down, and this time it worked.

Ever since I purchased my first SureFire, friends and family have mocked me for spending that much on a flashlight. Now I tell them how my SureFire saved my life, which shuts them up quick. Thank you for making such a brilliant, dependable light that also serves as a backup self-defense tool—and for saving my life.

Steve L.
Waukesha, WI

See the LX2 flashlight:

See All Stories About The:

I'm an Eagle Scout and go camping quite frequently with my local Boy Scout Troop. The one thing that I always bring with me is my SureFire L2 [superseded by the LX2--Ed.] and/or my SureFire E1L Outdoorsman. These great lights have always served me well in all camping conditions. My L2 can easily light up the whole campsite. I am always amazed at how many comments I get about how bright it is. Also, I always love how these lights become the center of conversation among the younger scouts and even the adults. It's always kind of fun to gloat and be, like, "Yep, that's my flashlight."

Thanks, SureFire, for making such an awesome flashlight that can wow Boy Scouts. Keep up the good work.

Ben M.
Lebanon, OH

See the LX2 and the E1L flashlights:

See All Stories About The:

Every night I take a walk with my mom and my dog, and I always carry my SureFire LX2 with me. I usually just use it for lighting up any dog waste I might step on, or just to light up the sidewalk. I thought maybe I blew almost $200 on a light that could do the same job as a cheap D-cell light; however, one night proved me wrong. My mom was walking in the middle of the road, and there was a sports car that didn't have its headlights turned on. The car sped up and almost crashed into my mom until I lit up the car with 200 lumens of blinding light and yelled "STOP!" That night my LX2 literally saved my mom's life.

Timothy L.
Arcadia, CA

See the LX2 flashlight:

See All Stories About The:

It was after 3:00 a.m., and I was behind the wheel of a 48-foot 33-ton tugboat. The weather was rough: heavy rain joined by a 25-knot winds gusting to 35 knots. The all-steel tug was swaying back and forth as if it weighed 33 pounds, not 33 tons. It had been a long day, and now a long night, as I was on the last leg of a voyage that started in Charleston, South Carolina, and was set to end in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Navigating on the water at night presents a challenging set of circumstances for any captain. Throw in the wind whipping the sea into a frothy mess of turbulence, visibility of near zero, no crew, and the level of difficulty increases exponentially. My concerns were many, but mainly that the tug's draft was five and a half feet, and I was about a mile outside the port of Tarpon Springs, on the Anclote River, and it was a dead-low tideâthe kind of dead low you normally only see in the winter, when it looks as if a giant sponge came down from the sky and sucked up all the water. Parts of the bottom I didn't even know existed were totally exposed, which meant if I didn't stay within the channel, running aground was a certainty.

Normally, flashing green and red channel markers point the way, and you simply stay within them to navigate, but not on this night. The only way to find the channel markers was to shine my LX2 LumaMax® in the direction I was headed. The light was so bright and so penetrating that it would bounce off the markers' reflective exteriors, allowing me to maintain my bearingsâand sanity. The light's 200 lumens shot through the murky, heavy darkness with a beam that consistently found the next marker, sometimes literally hundreds of yards away. If the conditions I was in were hell, the pure white beam radiating from my LX2 must've been the path of light to heaven. Thanks, SureFire, for getting me home safely.

Josh S.
New Port Richey, FL

See the LX2 flashlight:

See All Stories About The:

While on a family vacation in Branson, Missouri, we visited Marvel Cave at Silver Dollar City. Before the tour started I noticed the guide was carrying a two-cell Maglite on his side. I told my wife that I was amazed he didn't have a better light. When we got down deep into the cave, he started showing us different things in the dark caverns. About half way through the tour, he tried pointing the beam from his light at something to show us, but it was too far away for his weak light to reach. He told the group that the cave was so big lights couldn't reach some places. I immediately pulled out my brand-new SureFire LX2 and proved him wrong. Everyone on the tour was amazed at how bright my light was. One guy even asked if I could shine my light down a huge hole so he could take a photo. The rest of the tour the guide used my LX2 to show people the hidden features of the cave. When the guide returned the light to me at the end of the tour, he told me he was going to replace his Maglite with a SureFire.